You've Got Mail!

Dear Mom,

I really appreciated it when you made us homemade sweet potatoes.  Those were great.  And although initially I didn't care for the pureed bananas you made, I will say that they eventually grew on me.  And now they are one of my favorite things on earth.  Well, besides those Graduate Puffs.  Talk about baby crack.

The thing is, you have perfectly acceptable and tasteful foods around, even if you do refuse to share with us all those Reese cup Easter eggs you bought on clearance.  You thought we didn't notice you sneaking off to eat those every 5 seconds?  You were wrong.  We noticed.  Are there even any left?!?  My point is, with all this good food around, WHY OH WHY would you subject us to that jar of Beechnut vegetable turkey dinner? 

Please, Mom.  Please don't feed us that ever again.  EVER.

I'd rather eat stinkbugs.

Love,

Reid

P.S.  Can I please get a pacifier?  Cort has like 50.  It's not fair!  I know I suck my thumb and all, but a boy needs a nice pacifier on the side sometimes.

Frog Masks and Snowmen

I've been so busy preparing my week of Memes that I haven't really done a proper post this week.  So I'll do a summary of our activities.

First off, some of my favorite recipes for the past week.  This one came from A Good American Wife.  Here's a direct link to the recipe:  A Good American Wife.  She posts some gorgeous recipes and this one was awesome!  I made a few substitutions, but it's basically the same.

I made some Dots of Chocolate bundt cakes:

Hot and Sour Soup from KERF:  Kath Eats Real Food

You have to scroll a bit to get to the recipe because it is a bit of a lengthy post.  I've been following KERF forever it seems, and she always has really great food ideas.  I did my version in the crockpot and added a few ingredients.

I also made some avocado and pears for the twins.  The pears I had to actually cook in a pot until soft.

Even though I didn't add any water, they were really juicy once pureed, so I added in some rice cereal before freezing them in ice cubes.  Reid just loves pears.  They are his new favorite thing ever.  Besides milk.  And sweet potatoes.  And rice cereal. And snuggles.

Pierce and I did some crafting activities.  We picked this up in the $1 bin at A.C. Moore.  Pierce just loves frogs.

We've been snowed in....more than once.

So we made some snacks for the birds.

Pierce and I hung these up on the old Christmas tree on our front porch.  The good news is that the pumpkins are now gone.  Well, I kinda miss their moldy old blobs on the front steps.

Not really.

Scooter scored a new bed.

And Pierce and I made rice crispie treat snowmen and painted them with edible colors.

And you could've guessed that Cort has been up to some trouble, right?  Even with an ear infection, he spends his time plotting how to do very bad things. Like taking off his clothes during nap time.  This could become an issue if he's still doing this come kindergarten.

Why Bananas Mean Love

I have always hated bananas.  It's not just the texture.  It's the smell.  It's the taste.  I can't even eat the banana flavored Runts candies.  They seriously gross me out.  It's one of the only foods I dislike.  I wish I liked bananas.  I feel like a traitor being a runner and hating bananas.  They're at every race.  They're full of potassium and so good for recovery.  Alas, it's not going to happen.

That doesn't mean my boys can't like them though.  There's always hope, right?  I made my second batch of baby food yesterday.  Four bananas and about an ounce and a half of breastmilk:

Just the picture of bananas makes me shudder a little.  I definitely wouldn't do this for just anyone.

After mixing for about 5 minutes:

Paul walked through the kitchen while I was mixing the bananas.  The smell was so pungent that I'd pulled my shirt up over my face to try to block it out.  He thought this was hilarious.  Meanwhile, I'm going to need therapy.

The bananas made 2 trays.  Eight bananas at Sam's was $1.42 and since I only used half of them, it ended up costing me a mere .71 cents to make all this baby food.  And maybe I'll build up a tolerance to bananas so that next time it'll be easier.  I kind of doubt it, though.

As for Pierce, no bananas for him.  Instead, we had a celebration of Bob Marley's birthday (it really is today).  Pierce just loves Bob Marley.  We made special brownies.  But they are not special.  None of that around here!

Pierce keeps dancing around saying, "I'M GETTING SPECIAL BROWNIES!"  This makes Paul and I laugh.  We're kind of immature.  ;-)
Feel free to send this on to Cake Wrecks.  Whoever knew I can't even manage to draw a decent peace sign?

Baby Buffet

The twins' pediatrician had recommended waiting until 6 months to start solids.  We are so close though, and I was excited to get them started.  I don't know why.  Why is it that shoveling mush into a child's mouth for the first time brings such happiness?

The delicacy today was breast milk mixed with a bit of rice cereal. 

First bites:

Reid on top, Cort on the bottom right.

Thinking it over. 

Hmmmm, as true to their individual natures, wonder which one likes eating more?

Yup, Reid definitely likes eating more.  Chunk!

Look at the two of them.  Like two little old men sitting in their armchairs, watching a funny tv show, with faces covered in oatmeal.

Lest I leave someone out, here is a little chocolate mousse before:

And after:

Yes, we still put our 3 year old in the high chair.  Believe me, I know this is wrong.  But look how messy he is!  Since he doesn't seem to question the confinement, we're cramming him in there just as long as we possibly can.  Or at least until 5th grade.

Sweet Potatoes, a Viking, and a Pirate

The twins will be six months in two weeks.  So I decided to make a batch of baby food for them in preparation of them starting on solids.  Poor Pierce.  I was working full time when I had him and never once made him baby food from scratch.  Obviously, he's going to need therapy over such blatent neglect.

So first I got 5 sweet potatoes:

I poked holes in them with a fork and wrapped them in aluminum foil.  I baked them for an hour at 400*

Meanwhile, I tested out my new Jamie Oliver mug I got at Barnes and Noble for $2.50.  They are having their 75% clearance right now.  Lots of great stuff!

Mmmmm, creme brulee hot chocolate.  Creme brulee is only my favorite dessert ever. 

Now the best part:

The potatoes came out:

They are so easy to peel.  You can just pull the skin off after they cool a few minutes.

Into the mixer.  I added 5 ounces of breast milk.  So um, sample at your own risk, okay?  ;-)

Mixing:

After this was pureed to a silky smoothness, I filled up clean ice cube trays.  I had enough to do 3 large travel containers as well.

Put the ice cube trays in freezer zip locks to keep them clean and prevent freezer burn.  Just take a cube out to defrost the day before.  Voila, individual servings.  And the best part?  All this food only cost me $3.90! 

Now, time for some cuteness:

Cort the Conquerer and Piratey Reid.  Every day is a good day for costumes!